Device, system and method for controlling electrical loads

Abstract

Load control device, system and method for controlling a state of operation of at least one electrical load by receiving remote load control commands from at least one remote command centre with at least one receiving means of the load control device; and/or generating local load control commands with at least one local control unit of the load control device; and processing a stack of the remote load control commands and/or the local load control commands with at least one command processing unit of the load control device; and implementing an effective load control command containing at least one instruction for the effecting of the load control operations based on the stack for effecting load changing operations influencing the state of operation of the at least one electric load with at least one load interface unit of the load control device based on the at least one instruction.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A load control device for controlling a state of operation of at least one electrical load, the load control device comprising:
 at least one receiving means for receiving remote load control commands from at least one remote command centre; and/or 
 at least one local control unit for generating local load control commands at the load control device; and 
 at least one load interface unit for effecting load control operations influencing the state of operation of the at least one electric load, and 
 at least one command processing unit connected to the receiving means and/or to the at least one load interface unit, and configured to:
 process a stack of the remote load control commands and/or the local load control commands for generating based thereon an effective load control command containing at least one instruction for the effecting of the load control operations, and 
 administrate a priority table listing the load control commands sorted according to a respective command priority parameter, wherein the priority table is attributed with a persistence value defining a persistence of the load control commands over a time of an electrical power outage, and wherein the at least one command processing unit is configured to reinstall and execute the priority table after the electrical power outage and to adjust a remaining time parameter depending on the persistence value. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The load control device according to  claim 1 , wherein the command processing unit is configured to generate a command sequence of effective load control commands. 
     
     
       3. The load control device according to  claim 1 , wherein the instruction includes an instruction value at least partly defining the state of operation of the load, and a time duration value defining a duration time of validity of the instruction value. 
     
     
       4. The load control device according to  claim 1 , wherein an individual priority level is assigned to each of the command priority parameters in the priority table. 
     
     
       5. The load control device according to  claim 4 , wherein each of the priority levels constitutes a state machine on its own. 
     
     
       6. The load control device according to  claim 5 , wherein processing states of the state machine comprise:
 a start delay value representing a time span between start of a load control command and implementation of the at least one instruction, an iteration value for defining a number of iterations of implementing the instruction, and 
 a termination value for indicating termination of a load control command. 
 
     
     
       7. The load control device according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one command processing unit is configured to address a load based on a characteristics-vector defining individual technical characteristics of the at least one electrical load. 
     
     
       8. The load control device according to  claim 1 , wherein a command group vector comprises a plurality of characteristics vectors. 
     
     
       9. The load control device according to  claim 1 , wherein the load control device comprises at least one appliance control arrangement configured to operate a plurality of loads associated to an appliance. 
     
     
       10. The load control device according to  claim 9 , wherein each appliance control arrangement is provided with at least one of the local control unit, the load interface unit, and the command processing unit. 
     
     
       11. The load control device according to  claim 9 , wherein the load control device comprises a common source module configured to define at least one event common to a plurality of the appliance control arrangements. 
     
     
       12. The load control device according to  claim 9 , wherein the load control device comprises a command dispatching module configured to dispatch received remote load control commands to the at least one appliance control arrangement. 
     
     
       13. A load control system comprising at least one load control device according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
       14. A method of controlling a state of operation of at least one electrical load with a load control device, comprising the steps of:
 receiving, by at least one receiving means of the load control device, remote load control commands from at least one remote command centre; and/or 
 generating, by at least one local control unit of the load control device, local load control commands; and 
 processing, by at least one command processing unit of the load control device, a stack of the remote load control commands and/or the local load control commands; and 
 implementing, by at least one load interface unit of the load control device, an effective load control command containing at least one instruction for the effecting of load control operations based on the stack for effecting load control operations influencing the state of operation of the at least one electric load, based on the at least one instruction, and 
 administrating, by the at least one command processing unit, a priority table listing the load control commands sorted according to a respective command priority parameter, wherein the priority table is attributed with a persistence value defining a persistence of the load control commands over a time of an electrical power outage, and wherein the at least one command processing unit is configured to reinstall and execute the priority table after the electrical power outage and to adjust a remaining time parameter depending on the persistence value. 
 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 14 , characterised by the further step of providing a series of process values based on the stack, which process values one after the other determine the state of operation of the at least one load. 
     
     
       16. A computer program comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out the steps of the method of  claim 14 . 
     
     
       17. A computer-readable data carrier having stored thereon the computer program of  claim 16 . 
     
     
       18. A data carrier signal carrying the computer program of  claim 16 .